Here She Comes…The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder!

All day today, LauraLand has been abuzz with news items, excerpts, and interviews with author/editor/LIW historian William Anderson‘s newest work, The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper), which hits shelves tomorrow. I’m eagerly anticipating my copies from various sources (yay, interwebs, for making it possible to place orders at multiple non-profit museum shops even when the museums themselves are not yet open for the season!). Have you ordered yours yet?

Here’s Bill’s selection on the use of Laura’s work in the 1948 Japanese Re-education program, which he submitted to TIME Magazine:

http://time.com/4234438/letter-laura-ingalls-wilder/

And here is an interview with Bill, conducted by Caroline Fraser, and published today in Slate:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2016/03/the_selected_letters_of_laura_ingalls_wilder_interview_with_editor_william.html

Remember, one of the best ways to show your #LoveForLIW is to support the non-profit museums that preserve her legacy with archives and artifact collections. Your book-buying dollars go further when you spend at these sites, rather than purchasing at mega-marts and corporate conglomerates.

The always delightfully friendly and helpful Amy Ankrum, Director of Walnut Grove, Minnesota’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and Tourist Center, was kind enough to take my order directly over the phone. When I spoke with her today, she said the books were due to arrive in the afternoon, and mine would go out in the late mail. If past experience is any judge, I can expect my copy will be in my hands before the week is out!

You can reach Amy and her very knowledgeable staff:

Toll-free phone: (800) 528-7280 (within the U.S.) or: (507) 859-2358

330 8th Street

Walnut Grove, MN 56180

email to:   lauramuseum@walnutgrove.org

Online Gift Shop: http://www.walnutgrove.org/store/

Other Laura museums to purchase from:

Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, DeSmet, SD:

(800) 880-3383 or (605)854-3383    or email to:    info@discoverlaura.org

103 Olivet Avenue

DeSmet, SD 57231

http://shop.discoverlaura.org/The-Selected-Letters-of-Laura-Ingalls-Wilder-900.htm

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Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum, Mansfield, MO:

(877) 924-7126     OPEN NOW! Season is 1 March to 15 November 2016.

3068 Highway A

Mansfield, MO 65704

http://www.lauraingallswilderhome.com/?post_type=product

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Little House on the Prairie Museum, Independence, KS:

(620) 289-4238   or email to:   Lhopmuseumks@gmail.com

2307 CR 3000

Independence, Kansas 67301

(Open 7 Days, April through September, Friday/Saturday/Sunday in October)

Donations: https://secure.squarespace.com/commerce/donate?donatePageId=55d0cb2be4b0b18c963be80f

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Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum, Burr Oak, IA:

(563) 735-5916   or email to: museum@lauraingallswilder.us

3603 236th Avenue

Decorah, IA 52101

http://store.lauraingallswilder.us/t/museumlauraingallswilderus/books

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Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Pepin, WI:

(715) 513-6383 

306 3rd Street (State Hwy 35)

Pepin, WI 54759

http://lauraingallspepin.com/Websites/liwmuseum/images/Documents/Paver_form_rev2.pdf

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Almanzo Wilder Farm, Burke (Malone), NY:

(518) 483-1207   or email to:   farm@almanzowilderfarm.com

177 Stacy Road /PO Box 283

Burke, NY 12953

http://almanzosgeneralstore.com

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Spring Valley Methodist Church Museum (Wilder family site), Spring Valley, MN:

(507) 436-7659    or email to:   wilderinspringvalley@hotmail.com

221 W. Courtland Street

Spring Valley, MN 55975

http://www.springvalleymnmuseum.org/wilderlinks.html

 

Little Bessie says: “Please support your favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder museum…or, in this case, ALMANZO Wilder museum!” (Almanzo’s bucolic birthplace at Burke, NY is also known as Almanzo Wilder Farm. And it’s also home to a bunch of Little Bessie’s friends…)

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in DeSmet, SD, is also home to DeSmet’s First School, where Laura and Carrie attended during the now-legendary Hard Winter of 1880-1881.

A setting of Laura’s Rosebud Chintz dinnerware on display at Burr Oak, IA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slate reviews the long-awaited publication of Pioneer Girl.

In anticipation of the (Finally!) soon-to-be-released Pioneer Girl, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s circa 1928-30 memoir-cum-manuscript which became the basis for her “Little House” children’s series, Slate has offered the following glowing review of the long-awaited publication, edited and annotated by a team from South Dakota State Historical Society Press, spearheaded by recent Wilder biographer Pamela Smith Hill.

In 2010, Hill was a featured speaker at the first academic conference of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association (lovingly known as “LauraPalooza”: go to http://www.beyondlittlehouse.com for information about the upcoming conference in Brookings, South Dakota, July 2015). She is particularly known as the author of 2007’s insightful Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life. Hill has spent the last several years combing through archives and artifacts of various Wilder homesite museums, state archives, Wilder’s papers at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, and compiling some details from the research of a bevy of additional sources, including several independent researchers’ previous publications.

In addition, Hill is currently teaching the first-ever open-access online college course devoted solely to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Offered via Missouri State University and the Canvas Network, and entitled Laura Ingalls Wilder: Exploring her Work and Writing Life, the 8-week course was offered free of charge and attracted thousands of enrollees; it concludes 1 December 2014.

Pioneer Girl is currently available via pre-order from South Dakota State Historical Society Press (www.pioneergirlproject.org) and the various homesite museums devoted to preservation of Wilder’s legacy, including:

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and Tourist Center, Walnut Grove, Minnesota:
(www.walnutgrove.org/store/
or call 888-528-7298)

and
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, De Smet, South Dakota: (www.discoverlaura.org).

I ask that, as fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, you remember that where you make your purchase matters. Your purchase made directly through these museum and archive outlets will benefit the museums and archives most directly related to the Wilder legacy; purchases from the giant corporate behemoth retailers do not. So, if you want to make certain your purchase will benefit the places which protect the integrity, conservation, and very survival of the vast collections of Wilder papers and artifacts, please purchase directly from one of the Wilder homesites or the SDSHS Press.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/11/little_house_nonfiction_laura_ingalls_wilder_s_memoir_pioneer_girl_reviewed.2.html

The National Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association Conference, aka “LauraPalooza 2015,” Call for Proposals is Here!

Have you heard?

Planning for the National Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association Conference, affectionately known as “LauraPalooza,” is well underway, and the Call for Proposals has been issued as of 25 August 2014.

The theme of LauraPalooza 2015 is “Through Laura’s Eyes: Imagery, Illustrations, and Impressions from the Little House.”

This is the third national conference of the LIWLRA, to be held 16-17 July 2015 at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota, followed by and optional field trip to Laura’s “Little Town on the Prairie,” DeSmet, South Dakota, on Saturday, 18 July 2015. Academic submissions from all disciplines are encouraged. Submissions will be accepted for consideration and possible acceptance for presentation through 5 December 2014 (Rose Wilder Lane’s birthday) and acceptance notices will be issued 7 February 2015 (Laura’s birthday–see what they did there?).

Proposal submission details and guidelines can be found here:

Click to access Call-for-Proposals-LP15.pdf

Oh, and, if you know the significance of the date chosen to issue the Call for Proposals (25 August 2014) you really, really should consider attending the conference, whether you’re submitting a proposal or not!

Ingalls family furniture item “comes home” to De Smet, SD

I just arrived home from nearly a month in the Midwest. All of my trips to LauraLand have multiple purposes: research, presentations, networking, research, dining on Midwestern specialties (oh, there is no bacon like an upper Midwest bacon!), research, photography, research, museum visits, research, scouting for the next conference, and more research. But another activity I seek out is ANYTHING going on in the local area which simply can’t be done at home. (Again, with the bacon!) This year, as in 2011, I happened to be in the right place at the right time and heard about an upcoming auction which *supposedly* featured a “secretary” desk/cabinet which had once belonged to Laura’s youngest sister Grace and her husband, Nate Dow. The auction was happening a few towns away from where I was staying (Brookings, SD) and a few towns from where Grace and Nate used to live (Manchester, SD).

I debated attending, and kept changing my mind. The pragmatic part of me said, “how can you be sure of the provenance?” And, it was true, the article I read did not clarify how anyone could assure a prospective buyer that this was an authentic piece (It was. And it is.). The starving historian in me said, “maybe you could just go and look at it. But you can’t afford to bid on it!” (True, and true.) The super-geeky Laura fan in me said, “Oh! You simply MUST go see it. This kind of thing is so rare at an auction, and surely they wouldn’t try to present it as authentic this close to DeSmet if they didn’t have actual PROOF of the provenance. It MUST be the real thing. You should go!”

Finally, the pragmatist in me told the more sentimental and romantic parts of me to shove off and let it go. After all, even if it was real, and even if no one else was bidding high, and somehow I could afford it, well, there was just no way I could get it to fit in the car and drive it all the way home to New Hampshire and, besides, shipping it safely would be a logistical and financial nightmare. So, no, I didn’t go.

And, it is just as well that I didn’t!

As it turns out, a few people in-the-know, and with a big enough wallet to do so, were bidding it up…against the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in DeSmet! After a lot of heartaching, and many bid increases, the secretary went home with a lucky buyer…and I’m happy to report that the winning bid came from the Memorial Society! The scramble to own a previously-unknown Ingalls artifact ended in the best way possible (well, except for those of us who dreamt of owning it ourselves). Nate and Grace Ingalls Dow’s 1908 secretary, complete with original shipping tag on the back, is safely in its new home at the Memorial Society, just a scant 7 or 8 miles from the original destination on that shipping tag. As it should be!